The present invention relates to an ultrasound diagnostic equipment, in particular, an ultrasound diagnostic equipment in which a rechargeable ultrasound probe with a built-in battery and a diagnostic equipment body are connected together in a wireless manner.
An ultrasound diagnostic equipment using an ultrasound image has hitherto been put into practical use in the field of medicine. In general, this type of ultrasound diagnostic apparatus has an ultrasound probe with a built-in transducer array and a diagnostic equipment body connected to the ultrasound probe. In the ultrasound diagnostic apparatus, an ultrasonic wave is transmitted, from the ultrasound probe toward a subject, an ultrasonic echo from the subject is received by the ultrasound probe, and the reception signals are electrically processed in the diagnostic equipment body to produce an ultrasound image.
In recent years, an ultrasound diagnostic equipment has been developed in which the ultrasound probe and the diagnostic equipment body are connected through wireless communication in order to eliminate inconvenience of a communication cable which connects the ultrasound probe and the diagnostic equipment body, thereby improving operability. In this wireless ultrasound diagnostic equipment, for example, as described in JP 2003-10177 A, the ultrasound probe has a battery built-in as a power source, and when charging of the battery is required, power is supplied from a power supply unit of the diagnostic equipment body to the battery of the ultrasound probe in a noncontact manner through electromagnetic induction or the like in a state where the ultrasound probe is stored in a probe holder provided in the diagnostic equipment body.
In general, in a battery which is represented by a nickel-hydrogen battery or the like, if so-called top-up charging in which charging is performed before the residual amount of power of the battery becomes zero is frequently performed, it is noted that there is a problem in that the battery capacity is lowered due to the memory effect of the battery. In contrast with the top-up charging, if so-called refresh charging in which the battery is once discharged to make the residual amount of power zero and then charging is performed, is performed regularly, it is possible to extend the battery life.
However, since refresh charging takes a long period of time, the actual situation is that it is not easy to perform refresh charging of the battery built in to the ultrasound probe without causing a problem in an examination using the ultrasound diagnostic equipment.